Royal Warrants – what’s it all about?

Published,13 December 2016

Have you ever wondered which products are used to keep the Queen’s car gleaming? Wonder no more.

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Autoglym are the sole supplier of car care products to the Royal Household. You may have seen two coats of arms on our products and wondered just what they mean – these are the mark of a Royal Warrant, an official seal of sovereign approval.

Our Royal Warrants date back to the 1980’s, with the first coming from Prince Charles, and a second and third from HRH the Queen Mother and HM the Queen. This means that our products are used on all of the vehicles in the Royal fleet including state cars, support vehicles, Royal estate vehicles and state coaches. As a result, the Autoglym range is put to the test on vehicles that are both brand new and hundreds of years old and is relied upon to give the best results every time.

The history of the Royal Warrant goes back a lot further, and can in fact be traced to medieval times. This was an era when competition for Royal favour was high and the Monarch had the pick of the country’s finest tradespeople. By the 15th century, the Lord Chamberlain, as head of the Royal Household, formally appointed tradespeople with a Royal Warrant of Appointment – a practice that still remains to this day.

In the 18th century, Royal tradesmen began to display the Royal Arms on their premises and stationery, which is a tradition that Autoglym proudly continue, with the marks displayed on all of our products. Today there are around 800 Royal Warrant holders representing a huge cross-section of trade and industry, but the process to join this prestigious list is a rigorous one.

Each business has to sell their goods or services to the Royal Household for five-years before being able to apply. Once the application is made, they have to show that they can meet a set of strict criteria including service, support, environmental awareness and compliance. Following a review by the Royal Warrant Holders Association a decision will be made on the suitability and authenticity of each applicant. If successful, the warrants are granted to a named individual, known as the Grantee, rather than the actual company. It is then the responsibility of the Grantee to ensure that the company operates in the manner to which Royal Household would expect.

And the process doesn’t end there. The Warrant comes up for renewal every five years, at which point it has to be proven that the business still meets all the criteria set by the Warrant Holders Association and the Individual Royal Household.

Though the accreditation doesn’t come with specific privilege, we believe that our Royal Warrants are a sign of great service, our business’s moral and environmental standing and proof that some of the most expensive and globally visible vehicles in the world are trusted to and maintained by Autoglym products.

So next time you see a Royal vehicle, keep an eye out for that unmistakable Autoglym shine – and the next time you clean your car using our products, you can know that you’re in very regal company!